Fourth Amendment Of The United States Constitution

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
The recent capitualtion of the United States House of Representaives to the Bush Administrations demands for TELECOM IMMUNITY in anticipation of the United States Senate following suit shall not stand.
Congress is empowered to pass laws. If they pass a bad law it needs to be repealed. This is bad law and this site seeks to have this law repealed.
Please Read Carte blanche to illegally spy on Americans by Tom Burghardt

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The argument for telecom immunity is that these companies helped defend our nation after the 9/11 attacks. In all the debates and petty posturing, why isn’t the fact that these telecoms were approached before 9/11 being brought up?

Former CEO Joseph P. Nacchio says he was approached in February 2001, a full 6 months before 9/11.

“Nacchio’s account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts“.

“ Speaking from the White House lawn Oct. 10, Bush said Congress must grant liability protection to telephone companies being sued “only because they are believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend our nation following the 9/11 attacks.”

But is it the truth? An article published in WIRED states that the NSA program started just days into the Bush presidency.

Qwest CEO Not Alone in Alleging NSA Started Domestic Phone Record Program 7 Months Before 9/11

The project was described in the ATT sales division documents as calling for the construction of a facility to store and retain data gathered by the NSA from its domestic and foreign intelligence operations but was to be in actuality a duplicate ATT Network Operations Center for the use and possession of the NSA that would give the NSA direct, unlimited, unrestricted and unfettered access to all call information and internet and digital traffic on ATTÌs long distance network. […]

The NSA program was initially conceived at least one year prior to 2001 but had been called off; it was reinstated within 11 days of the entry into office of defendant George W. Bush.

In Oct 2007 Rep John Conyers wrote a letter to National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, and Ken Wainstein, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security.

“Conyers noted that the White House is seeking civil and criminal immunity for telephone companies that did cooperate with the wiretapping program. Because of that, Conyers said, “it is crucial that Congress be fully informed of all the administration’s surveillance activities.”

This is an excellent point. Telecom immunity has tended to take center stage. In all fairness though, denying the telecoms immunity goes straight to getting to the bottom of everything Bush has been up to.

That’s not entirely true, slag. I mean, the information DID appear in WIRED, which is not a lefty blogosphere source. It also appeared in Bloomberg News, a Wall Street business news outfit, as well as a number of other papers.

Stilljanet’s cited sources are mainstream news publications, to answer her last question. The information HAS been out there for those who look for it, just as the necessary information to figure out the Bush administration was cooking up a crock about Iraq was out there ahead of time for those who looked for it.

The information is out there, and yet it has all the effect of a pebble tossed into a deep, deep well. At this point in the comment, I should be telling you what’s REALLY going on. But to be honest, I have no idea what’s really going on with this issue. I have no clue why this information is being largely ignored by so many people. Not a clue.

The problem is not that the information is not available in mainstream news sources but rather that those sources apparently have no interest in connecting the dots, pushing the story into the national discourse, or investigating thoroughly.

I think it’s largely ignored, sadly, due to apathy. A amazing number of Americans support intrusive levels of security if they think it will make them safer. Something like this, which operates in the background and creates no immediate inconveniences, has to overcome that basic lack of concern as well as its own invisibility on a day-to-day basis.

The integrity, security and safety of our national telephone and Internet communications systems must become a major concern as we look forward to Change in November.

Private government contractors monitor all U.S. telephone and Internet communications. Some of these private contractors are corrupt or have weak internal controls.

60-70% of the National Security Agency and the CIA’s National Clandestine Services budgets are paid to private contractors. See http://HappinessHacker.com for links to NYTimes articles and respected sources that document private government contractor concerns.

Do you think all these private security contractors are honest and honorable?

The War on Terror is a $100+ billion industry, the people and organizations profiting from it will not let go easily.

Can we have fair and free elections in November if our telephone and Internet communications systems are compromised?